Lotus has broken the seal on the 2013 Formula One season, launching the E21 car at its factory in Enstone. With the regulations this year quite similar to those of last year, there are no dramatic changes in form compared to the E20. After some teams lobbied to be able to cover the stepped nose with a “vanity panel,” Lotus retained the configuration, the team’s technical director saying that the panel would add more weight and didn’t make sense to put on the car unless it also added performance.

Beyond that, the E21 is said to be an comprehensive advance in its details – the suspension gets a new layout, the Coanda exhaust and the passive double DRS system are evolutions from last year, the front wing is “a continuation of concepts” from 2009.

After securing fourth in the Constructor’s Championship last year, this is the chassis that drivers Kimi R